Improvement in billiard-tables



w. H. GRIFFITH.

Billiard-Tables.v

N0. 133,365. Y Patented Nov.26,1872

/gl/gf @MW @M @2% v/qm n BER @www NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. GRIFFITH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN BILLIARD-TABLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 133,365, dated November 26, 1872.

To all whom 'it may concer/n:

Be it known that I,W1LLIAM H. GRIFFITH, of the city,^county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Billiard- Table, of which the following is a specification:

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of my improved billiard-table, the line c o, Fig. 2, indicating the plane of section. Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

This invention relates to a new manner of bracing and sustaining the top of a billiardtable. Such top is now usually made of slate or other mineral substance in three or more slabs, which are placed side by side upon the supporting-frame, and is liable to sag in the middle, especially on tables having but four legs, and also to open the joints between the several slabs or pieces of slate. Either of these occurrences would virtually destroy the billiard-table. My invention consists in the arrangement of metallic bars, which connect with the end slabs and press under a middle bridge of the billiard-table, serving to draw the slabs firmly together, and also to hold the middle of the table up, and thus keep the top level.

A in the drawing represents the frame of the billiard-table, supported on legsB. B, and provided across the middle with a transverse bridge or cross-piece, C, rmly secured in the frame. D is the billiard-top, composed of slabs or plates of slate or equivalent material, and placed upon the frame A, close together to form a continuous smooth and level surface.' E Eare metal rods, whose ends enter the end slabs of the billiard-top, and which pass under the bridge C, as shown. Rightand-left-hand or swivel nuts a, a in the rods E are used to draw them tense, and thereby to draw the slabs close together, to prevent all creases or crevices between them. At the same time, being under the bridge G, the rods E E serve to hold up the middle of the table and to prevent it from sagging. The ends of the braces may enter the slabs plainly, in the manner shown, or may be fastened by other means, either by being headed, sunk in lead, or otherwise. Each rod, E, should, by preference, have two nuts, a, one on each side of the bridge C.

Havin gthus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The metal rods E, connected with the-ends of the billiard-top and placed under the bridge or cross-piece C, substantially as herein shown and described.

, WM. H. GRIFFITH.

Witnesses:

A. V. BRIESEN, T. B. MosHER. 

